A. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a conveying device for homogenous, sensitive and nonpumpable foodstuffs having a low liquid portion that are preferably ready-to-use foods. In particular, foods such as, but not exclusively, cooked or fried Asian noodle and rice dishes, vegetables salads, pasta salads, or baked goods covered with sauce are conveyed.
The importance of instant meals has risen and continues to rise significantly due to various social considerations, and this rising demand is also expressed in the also rising selection of instant meals. Global food trends are restructuring the food market and repeatedly confront the food industry with new problems. The requirements placed on food manufacturers and processors in terms of variety and quality are rising increasingly, and the end consumer is offered an increasing number of different instant meals that of course must be correspondingly prepared and packaged.
B. Related Art
It is known from DE 34 41 425 C2 that a screw conveyor can be used to transport foods. This screw conveyor is used according to the principle of the Archimedean screw to transport cut-up raw vegetables and cut-up raw lettuce using an angled screw conveyor. It is also known from the prior art that conveyor screws are also used especially to convey dried goods and to transport small-sized and flaked bulk goods in the field of commerce.
DE 18 13 219 A, which is known from the prior art, discloses a screw conveyor that is located in a cylindrical housing, and whose rotatable screw has an inner part which is independent from the screw and can be rotated at different angular speeds or is held in a freestanding manner in order, ideally, to convey powdered or doughy foods.
DE 195 20 992 A1 discloses a screw conveyor system which is used to remove waste from water. This prior art discloses three different areas of the employed screw conveyor, of which one area, that is, the one closest to the drive, is designed as a hollow screw. This design compensates for the sometimes strongly fluctuating supply of conveyed material.
DE 102 61 058 A1 describes a deicing agent distribution device for a winter road deicing vehicle where a screw conveyor conveys the deicing agent from a deicing agent reservoir to a down pipe opening. In order to declump the deicing agent, two rows of pins mounted strictly radially to the outside are fixed to the rotating screw.
A disadvantage of the devices known from the prior art is that the conveyed goods are not handled carefully enough to minimize waste.
Given the increasing trend toward instant meals such as Asian noodle or rice dishes, the processing food industry is continuously confronted with new challenges. The fine and frequently fragile structure of the employed ingredients which are used for such special instant meals needs to be fed completely to the packing machine, and the scrap arising from shearing forces needs to be minimized.
It is known from practice that loss from generated scrap is particularly high during transport from the storage container to fill the corresponding metering machine.
When foods are conveyed by a conveyor belt system or by a permanently installed screw conveyor from the storage container to the metering machine, at most the processing temperature has been considered in regards to the sensitivity of the food. The shearing forces that arise are usually not considered, which causes the sensitive goods to deform, and the food waste is correspondingly high.